Secondary packaging is often employed in retail packaging and distribution of brewery products. Typically such packaging is made of corrugated board or fiberboard, and, in its most familiar form, as generally rectangular cartons. Such cartons are usually provided with partitions which divide the carton's interior into a plurality of pocket-like compartments that are adapted to receive individual ones of the primary packages. This partitioning of the cartons interior serves a number of purposes, not the least of which is to hold the primary packages in mutually spaced but relatively tightly packed relation. This is intended to help avoid the breakage that direct contact between the primary packages might otherwise occasion during the course of normal handling of the carton.
The dividers are usually made up of a series of interconnected members. Depending on any one or more of a myriad of design factors, such members may be formed as part of, or affixed to, the interior walls of the carrier. More typically, however, (and especially in the case of dividers intended for use with ten or more primary beverage containers), such dividers are manufactured independently of the carton proper. They are only subsequently prior erected, if required, then inserted into the carton, most often immediately prior to the introduction of the primary containers. In many instances, the erected divider unit is not secured or affixed to the carton but is adequately, for practical purposes, maintained in position due to its length and width approximating those dimensions of the carton interior. Since the set-up and insertion steps are often mechanized operations conducted by specialized portions of available high speed packaging lines, problems may be encountered when the erected relatively tightly fitting three-dimension divider unit is inserted as such high speeds into the associated carton. For example, if the unit is overly angled relative to the plan of the carton base, then it can jam on the carton walls.
In all, dividers, to be practical and commercially suitable for such applications, must be inexpensive both in terms of their materials and their assembly/insertion costs, and yet must survive not only the initial packaging operation, but also be convenient and at least durable enough to allow them to be used by the consumer for the return of recyclable primary containers. These are fundamental considerations in adopting any divider design, particularly in relation to the packaging of bottled brewery products.
The current industry standard for dividers used in the so-called "twenty-four pack" cases, (named to reflect the number of bottles each such case is adapted to carry in a "6.times.4" configuration), comprises a series of eight strips of fiberboard, arranged with three such panels in a spaced, mutually parallel orientation. These are traversed at right angles by the remaining five strips, which are themselves arranged in a mutually parallel, evenly spaced apart relation. Typically the junction between any two strips is formed by the inter-nesting of opposed, complimentary slots, arranged on respective ones of the two intersecting strips. Such dividers are usually assembled by the carton manufacturer, and shipped in a collapsed condition to the brewery packaging department. In the brewery the collapsed dividers are drawn from inventory on a demand basis, shortly before cartons into which they are to be placed, are scheduled for filling. Machinery at the packaging facility "sets-up" both the required number of cartons and corresponding dividers and inserts the erected dividers within the cartons. Packing equipment then aligns the cartons (and dividers) in a predetermined orientation and drop-loads the twenty-four product filled bottles (primary containers) into their assigned compartments or pockets within the carton.
Such dividers are expensive to manufacture and handle. Yet in spite of these shortcomings, they have for many years been, and to-date still remain, the commercial solution of choice.
There exist, in the patent literature, a number of designs for packaging trays and display cartons. A sampling of such are to be found in CA U.S. Pat. No. 491,675; U.S. Pat. No. 2,697,547; and, CA U.S. Pat. No. 723,990. None of these patents contemplate any of the special considerations which obtain in respect of the packaging or distribution of bottled products in general, let alone those that arise in connection with the North American brewery products industry. Nevertheless, all have in common, the apparent purpose of providing a unitary blank replete with tab members adapted to be folded out of the plane of the blank to form a multi-compartmented divider of some sort or another. Such dividers have manufacturing, assembly, and logistical advantages over multi-part dividers such as those in use in the beer industry, (including the one described above).
CA U.S. Pat. No. 491,675 illustrates a unitary blank with a generally centrally located group of three, evenly spaced apart rectangular flaps defined, respectively, between lines of weakness on three sides, and a preformed hinge line on the fourth side. The three flaps are adapted to be broken away from the blank along the lines of weakness, and folded out of the plane of the blank into an upright posture. With this accomplished, a pair of opposed, transverse side panels defined by intermittent fold lines that traverse the length of the blank, between the flaps, can be folded upright to engage the upright flaps in mutually secured relation. The resulting girder like construction provides strength to the overall divider, and allows lighter (less expensive) materials to be used. As can be seen in FIG. 2 of that patent, however, this design still has dimensional weakness susceptible to the application of lateral forces, although whether of not this is of commercial significance depends largely on the intended application of the particular divider.
CA U.S. Pat. No. 723,990, discloses a very similar tray with respect to the overall concept involved in erecting and securing the compartment defining flaps from the blank. With regard to structural stability, this design employs a base panel that is adapted to be folded under the erected divider panel. This will greatly improve the dimensional stability of the carton/divider during the filling operation. It is a benefit which is obtained, however, only at a significant cost in additional material, as well as involving a further step in the erection process.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,697,547 discloses a third, but still similar design. The approach taken in this case attempts to deal with some of the dimensional stability issues that could arise in connection with CA U.S. Pat. No. 491,675, without necessarily requiring the additional materials cost associated with the solution put forward in CA U.S. Pat. No. 723,990. In seeking to accomplish this, U.S. Pat. No. 2,697,547 discloses a tray in which the flaps are cut as pairs arranged in lateral register on opposite sides of a central, longitudinally extending, straight spine. Each flap is folded up from a triangular root that is attached to the central spine. The provision of the wide central spine contributes to the structural stability of this divider. This design does not lend itself to or suggest applications where the central compartment is intended to be subdivided by a supported, longitudinally extending insert.
There remains a need in the art, especially as it applies to brewery products packaging, for a cost-effective, rugged carton divider.